If you consume less energy, but end up malnourished because you weren’t getting enough micronutrients, then you haven’t really come out ahead, have you? Rickets and scurvy ain’t cool.
Lots of calories from fats. Generally poor in micronutrients. There’s very good reasons that you’re supposed to eat lots of leafy vegetables. Multivitamins may stave off the worst effects of malnutrition, but the bioavailability of multivitamins is generally poor, e.g. you can take 100x the necessary daily amount of D3, and still have low levels of vitamin D if you aren’t getting enough time outside in sunlight.
You don’t have to eat perfectly all the time to avoid malnutrition, but if your diet is consistently high in fats and simple carbs–which is what really cheap food tends to be–you’re probably going to have chronic deficiencies.
So generally just decreasing food intake if you eat primarily bad food isn’t any more dangerous, because 0 nutrients - 0 nutrients is still 0 nutrients.
If you consume less energy, but end up malnourished because you weren’t getting enough micronutrients, then you haven’t really come out ahead, have you? Rickets and scurvy ain’t cool.
Are there lots of nutrients in cheap food?
It’s incredibly easy to avoid scurvy.
Lots of calories from fats. Generally poor in micronutrients. There’s very good reasons that you’re supposed to eat lots of leafy vegetables. Multivitamins may stave off the worst effects of malnutrition, but the bioavailability of multivitamins is generally poor, e.g. you can take 100x the necessary daily amount of D3, and still have low levels of vitamin D if you aren’t getting enough time outside in sunlight.
You don’t have to eat perfectly all the time to avoid malnutrition, but if your diet is consistently high in fats and simple carbs–which is what really cheap food tends to be–you’re probably going to have chronic deficiencies.
So generally just decreasing food intake if you eat primarily bad food isn’t any more dangerous, because 0 nutrients - 0 nutrients is still 0 nutrients.